226 



NA TURE 



[Jan. 8, 1885 



by the Secretary, Dr. Edmund Atkinson, Portesbery Hill, 

 Camberley, Surrey, or by the Treasurer, Dr. W. H. Perkin, 

 the Chestnuts, Sudbury, Harrow. 



M. Milne Edwards has been nominated by the French 

 Government Grand Officer of the Legion d'Honneur. 



Lectures in connection with the London Society for the 

 Extension of University Teaching have been going on in White- 

 chapel now for more than six years. The number of tickets sold 

 for the lectures during this period has been close upon 2000, and 

 the ticket-holders have been nearly all artisans. The reports of 

 the examiners, appointed by the Universities' Board, have shown 

 that many of those attending the lectures are real students — a 

 conclusion which is also borne out by the fact that the same 

 subjects have been studied for several years in succession. It 

 has been felt that a good reference library and reading room 

 would be a great help to the existing students, as well as a 

 means of attracting others. An opportunity for providing these 

 advantages is now afforded in the " Universities' Settlement " 

 in Toynbee Hall, where the lectures will in future be given, and 

 a reading room be opened to the students. The Committee 

 desire to stock this room with a good reference library — espe- 

 cially in the subjects of history, political economy, physics, and 

 physiology — and will be very grateful for any assistance in this 

 attempt to further higher education among working men and 

 women in East London. Any one willing to help, either with 

 books or with money, is requested to communicate either with 

 E. T. Cook, 22, Albemarle Street, W. (Sec. London Society 

 for the Extension of University Teaching), or Bolton King, 

 28, Commercial Street, E. (Hon. Sec. Whitechael Local 

 Committee). 



The mean-time clocks at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 

 were put forward twelve hours a little before midnight of 

 December 31, in order that the commencement of the civil day 

 and the astronomical day might be identical from January 1, 

 1885. The public clock near the entrance to the Observatory 

 will thus indicate the hours as recommended by the Wash- 

 ington Conference — i.e. reckoning from oh. to 24I1., start- 

 ing from midnight. As the Greenwich observations for 1885 

 will not be printed until 1 886, the proposed method can 

 be tried for a year before the necessity of deciding on its 

 adoption will arise. In writing to the Rev. T. E. Espin, 

 President of the Liverpool Astronomical Society, the Astrono- 

 mer-Royal says: — "The change that we propose to make at 

 Greenwich is for the present provisional only, as it appears 

 essential that it should be generally accepted by astronomers 

 before it is introduced into any published observations I am 

 very anxious to avoid the confusion which would result from two 

 systems of reckoning time being in use among astronomers. 

 But as regards the ordinary public, it seems to me clear that for 

 civil reckoning the day must commence at midnight, and in order 

 to assist in familiarising the public with the reckoning from oh. to 

 2 4 n -> I propose on January 1 to alter our public clock (which is 

 numbered from oh. to 24I1.) by 12I1., so that it will show civil 

 reckoning instead of the old astronomical reckoning." 



Chemists will regret to learn that Dr. Edward Divers, Prin- 

 cipal of the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokio, Japan, 

 has met with a very serious accident, which it is feared will result 

 in the loss of one of his eyes. He is understood to have been 

 engaged in work in connection with the theory of acids, when a 

 bottle, supposed to contain terchloride of phosphorus, exploded, 

 causing him very severe injuries. Dr. Divers is well known as 

 the author of many valuable chemical papers read before the 

 Royal and other scientific societies. 



Mr. Alfred Tylor, F.G.S., who died on December 31 last, 

 will be remembered as a promoter of technical education at a 



time when its vital importance was little recognised, and the 

 English manufacturing mind was generally set against it. He 

 was intimately associated with Dr. von Steinbeis, whose energy 

 in this direction did so much to give the little kingdom of Wur- 

 temburg its industrial prominence in Germany. Mr. Tylor's 

 work, "Education and Manufactures," arising out of his Jury 

 Report on Metal Work at the Exhibition of 1862, was translated 

 into German under the title " Industrie und Schule" (Stuttgart, 

 1S65), and also appeared in Swedish. Mr. Tylor sat for some 

 years on the Council of the Geological Society. His geological 

 papers relate principally to the flow of rivers as connected with 

 the erosion of valleys and the deposit of gravel-beds ; they 

 contain much systematised information, for instance, as to the 

 mechanical action of the Mississippi and the Ganges. It is well 

 known that his study of river-valleys and drift-gravels led him 

 to the hypothesis of a post-glacial time of enormous rainfall, 

 winch he called the " pluvial period." The term, though not 

 generally accepted, is found of use, to judge from its not unfre- 

 quent appearance in geological works. 



The death is announced, at the age of seventy-four years, of 

 Dr. Andrew Findlater, for so many years connected with the 

 editorial department of Messrs. \V. and R. Chambers. Dr. 

 Findlater wrote several of the scientific volumes in Chambers's 

 well-known " Educational Course," and edited a revised edition 

 of the " Information for the People." But his most important 

 undertaking was the editing of " Chambers's Encyclopaedia," the 

 scientific articles in which hold so high a place, mainly through 

 Dr. Findlater's knowledge, discernment, and tact in obtaining 

 the right men to act as contributors. Dr. Findlater was offered 

 the editorship of the new edition of the "Encylopsedia Britannica," 

 but was induced to decline it. 



We read in the German papers that the Greek Government 

 has offered to supply the marble, as it did in the case of Lord 

 Byron's monument in England, for a national monument to be 

 erected to Wilhelm Muller, the father of Prof. Max Muller, in 

 his native town of Dessau. Wilhelm Midler is best known as 

 the poet of the " Miiller-lieder," beautifully set to music by 

 Schubert. But the Greek Government, in the name of the 

 Greek nation, wished to express its recognition of the great 

 services rendered to the cause of Greek independence by Wilhelm 

 Muller, "the Philhellenic Tyrtacus," whose " Griechenlieder" 

 belong to the classical literature of Germany. Committees have 

 been formed in Germany, Italy, Greece, and America. The 

 English committee consists of Mrs. Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt, 

 Sir Theodore Martin, Sir Robert Morier, Sir George Grove, 

 J. A. Froude, and Prof. Buchheim. Subscriptions are received 

 by Messrs. Williams and Norgate, 14, Henrietta Street, W.C. 



Bavarian papers report the death, after a short illness, of 

 Dr. Philip von Jolly, Professor of Mathematical and Experi- 

 mental Physics in the University of Munich, in the seventy-fifth 

 year of his age. 



A new association has been established among the students 

 of the University of Paris. The first step of this institution has 

 been the organisation of a public manifestation in honour of 

 M. Chevreul, the director of the Museum, who is just com- 

 pleting his 100th year. He is the first French academician who 

 has reached this advanced age since the death of Fontenelle, 

 who died about 1750, a few days before completing his century. 

 A little before his death Fontenelle was heard to say to one of 

 his friends asking if he complained of some illness, "I have no 

 suffering, but I am feeling merely an increased difficulty of 

 living." 



We learn from Science that the "cold-wave flag," whose use 

 has been inaugurated by the U.S. Signal Service during the past 

 autumn, is intended to be displayed not only at the regular 



